Season 1 Episode 1

"The Original"

The first episode revolves around Dolores; an android or “host,” who lives out each day in Westworld in a similar fashion, with her father Peter, her lover Teddy, her errands in town and some time painting by the river. Each time she wakes up, things are slightly different because of the “newcomers” or guests of Westworld interacting and having free reign. It’s not really specified how big Westworld is, but it goes far beyond just Dolores’ day. Guests at any given time are riding horses, chasing bandits, getting into bar fights, roping cattle, or settling in for an authentic bordello experience. While there are stories to be told and events to unfold, the hosts are at the mercy of the guests. Dialogues and stories are interrupted or straight up ruined, the timing of things and interactions is changed but remains very much the same and the hosts start each cycle with little or no recollection of what happened the last go ‘round.

Westworld is the theme park experience light years ahead of what we know today. In a cold, clinical location there are people working around the clock to monitor the guests and hosts, ensuring storylines play out satisfactorily. There are people fabricating new hosts, and making sure the existing ones are functioning. There are writers, programmers and management all trying to fight to get their ideas, visions and plans heard. And, like any good theme park, things must be updated and improved so that people want to visit and revisit time and again. The hosts have been updated recently with “reveries,” little touches of humanity born out of leftover data kicking around in the hosts’ “brains” after they are wiped when the overarching storyline of Westworld concludes. This was the idea of Westworld’s creator, Dr. Robert Ford (Sir Anthony Hopkins), who can be considered a more morose Walt Disney. His lead programmer, Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright), admires the change but management (Theresa Cullen) and the creative director (Lee Sizemore) only see it as more trouble than it’s worth.

The trouble starts with a few simple glitches in the hosts, which is to be expected. But when Peter stumbles on a photograph left by a guest, an unknown girl in an anachronistic setting, his poring over it leads him down a strange path of thought. Another host goes on a shooting rampage, spouting off nonsense about not wanting to be the one that always gets killed anymore. Being that he is the villain of a particular storyline, that does always end up getting killed in the conclusion, this self-awareness is troublesome enough for the crew to break the immersion and take him off-line. To compensate, they move up the big finale and retool it to really wow the guests. The day the big bad outlaw Hector comes to rob the saloon, Peter has somewhat of a break in programming too because of the picture. He whispers something to Dolores as she leaves for town but soon all that is forgotten in the (almost) epic shootout.

Meanwhile there seems to be a permanent guest in Westworld, the mysterious Man In Black, who goes around trying to get his kicks in a world he already knows too well, going so far as to rape Dolores in one cycle. He kills another host, one who he thinks has some special insight on how to game the system, but we won’t know to what end until later. The episode ends with the two problematic hosts being put out to pasture, so to speak, and Dolores along with the rest of Westworld getting a wipe and diagnostic test. Dolores’ view of Westworld and its newcomers is optimistic, despite what we have seen happen to her. But with these new reveries, and the fact that she is the oldest host in Westworld, we have to wonder if she really is faithful to her programming.

One can’t help but imagine video games when watching. In particular, open world or “sandbox” games where there are perhaps stories to follow or quests to go on but the real fun lies in becoming a character and making your own reality within the boundaries of the world. The “non-player characters” exist in the world to serve your experience and you are free to treat them however you’d like. You can immerse yourself in their dialogue and your interactions with them, or you can casually dismiss them as just markers on your quest. You could even abuse them, treat them cruelly or kill them. Because they really don’t exist do they? But even still, don’t we find ourselves getting attached to certain characters, revisiting their little shops, replaying entire games just to be back in its setting? And don’t the creators of these worlds and experiences get attached too? To the stories and the events that play out, and can we blame them for being a little frustrated when the players act out of character or break the carefully crafted immersion? These ideas are extremely prevalent in Westworld, and I found myself feeling bad for Peter who keeps getting shot, Dolores who keeps getting her day ruined one way or another, and the countless other hosts that are just there to be fucked or fucked with, by the guests.

In another sense, it’s like going to a theme park and punching a character in the nose or telling them they aren’t really a superhero or princess. You forget there’s a person beneath the mask or wig, because you’re only there for your own enjoyment, however shitty and selfish that may be. But in Westworld, there really isn’t a person in there, or is there?

The concept of the “ghost in the machine” will come up a lot too. Probably not in the hard philosophy sense, but in a way that a lot of sci-fi explores consciousness in an artificial creation. The reveries are “memories” the hosts are allowed to have to give them unique forms of expression, which are built off of bits of data here and there that may or may not be purposely left over from a previous wipe. Over time, these clumps might add up and develop into all sorts of scary stuff for an android: self-awareness, personality, and the instinct for self-preservation. Given how these hosts are treated, I can’t wait to see them stop performing and start living.

I am SO excited for this show. Michael Crichton’s concept positively begged for an update. The characters are already oddly compelling, and whether we are in the cold, controlled spaces of the control rooms or the wide open vistas of the American frontier, everything looks obscenely gorgeous.

I’m already frustrated at the existence of the Man in Black, and I feel bad for those saloon girls. And if Dolores is the oldest host in Westworld, shouldn’t she have the most “memories” kicking around in that supposedly freshly wiped brain of hers? Surely she won’t take kindly to being assaulted or to Peter getting killed in front of her hundreds of thousands of times, if she becomes self-aware...

Season 1 Episode 2

"Chestnut"

While they assumed the problematic hosts had been removed and the bugs worked out, ghosts of memories, what could be considered a whispered virus, begins making its way through Westworld. Dolores seems to be back to normal but she shows signs that something isn’t quite right with her. We see that Lowe takes a special interest in her, spending time with her outside the park, either probing her “mind” or influencing it, which one remains unclear. Something her father threatened Dr. Ford with, a line from Romeo and Juliet, resurfaces again when she says it matter-of-factly to Maeve. It troubles Maeve, but her story is also being influenced by Sizemore, who wants to introduce a “horde of savages” story line and she is one of its victims. These new memories affect her “performance” unfortunately and she’s scheduled to be replaced. Until that time comes, Clementine is tasked to step up her game. We get to see just how easily and on a whim the hosts are influenced and repurposed, how their “lives” are at the mercy of the architects of the park.

Meanwhile the Man in Black continues his quest to find the entrance to a mysterious maze, this time employing the assistance of another host, Lawrence. It’s understood that the hosts aren’t real and that they serve at the pleasure of the guests, but the Man in Black approaches this fact with an odd sadism. Unable to derive pleasure from Westworld’s stories and characters, he only enjoys himself when he’s causing suffering. His path of carnage is not unnoticed by the admins (I don’t know what else to call them) but he apparently has carte blanche to behave this way. He’s finally given the clue he was seeking, and continues on his journey with Lawrence in tow.

These things occur as two very different coworkers take a trip through Westworld, one having been there before, treats the park much in the way the jaded Man in Black does, using the hosts to satisfy his lower and more violent urges. The other seems to want to be immersed in the world and its stories and instead of letting go of who he is in the world and “cutting loose” in Westworld, would rather see what arises by just being himself.

There are equally interesting characters running the park as well. Lowe is intrigued by the previously installed “reveries” and the problems they give rise to and would rather see them play out, whereas Elsie would rather correct them. Lowe is a great study of human emotion and yet himself struggles with perhaps basic communication and empathy, which makes his relationship with Theresa Cullen all the more interesting. She is not afforded the luxury of intimacy either, having to be kind of a hardass to juggle investors, guests, the visions of Dr. Ford and the aspirations of Sizemore all at once.

The episode ends with some really meaty events. We learn that while the hosts don’t dream, they are given the concept of nightmares so in case a tech doesn’t wipe their memory properly, they can fool the host into thinking whatever they retain from a past cycle is nothing more than a meaningless, if scary, figment. Maeve has figured out a way to “wake” herself from these nightmares, and Sizemore’s new storyline triggers one (first involving natives, then the Man in Black) that she snaps out of. The trouble is, she is going through a maintenance procedure (surgery for us real humans) when she wakes up. Making a temporary escape, she sees way more than a host should. It’s the first real “oh shit” moment of the show, and we can make a somewhat shallow comparison to The Matrix here.

Dr. Ford spends some of his free time in Westworld, gathering inspiration from his own creation in perhaps a redundant feedback loop. Yet he still sees possibility in it, not in the telling of shocking, titillating stories the way Sizemore wants, but in making guests feel like they’ve discovered something new on their own or being rewarded for just being themselves. As Ford completely shuts down Sizemore’s new “savage horde” storyline, you can see that Sizemore both wants to please Ford and to see him forced out of these decisions. Instead, Ford and Lowe meet in the park to discuss a new storyline that we will perhaps see next week.

Again, Ford is Walt Disney but with perhaps a bit more self-loathing, a bit more tortured creativity. He has a fascinating love/hate relationship with humanity. He knows it all too well, and at one time really loved seeing guests find their own bit of magic in Westworld, those moments are few and far between as the abuses of his creation rise. Yet he cannot stop his urge to tell stories and create experiences…

This is related more or less by the coworkers, William and Logan. While Logan would rather stab and fuck his way through town, William seeks the immersion. Probably the same in the real world, douchebag Logan may get the shallow, visceral experiences but William’s mild mannered kindness and morality bring him more nuanced and personally satisfying moments that he’ll hang on to.

The Man in Black is still a frustrating mystery. On one hand he’s grown weary of Westworld and only the most brutal of pleasures bring him any sort of joy. Instead of quitting though, he seeks to pull away the curtain, or see the dealer’s hand. For what purpose, it is not clear yet. But it seems that he had a pretty big role in Maeve’s awakening, which is dangerous to the balance of Westworld. The admins don’t seem to want to interrupt his quest though. In a gaming sense, he’s a “whale” who has spent tons of money on the game and goes thusly unpunished for using hacks or overpowered items. It isn’t fun for him anymore, but he’s too addicted to quit and move on, so all he has left is griefing and trolling.

At the same time, what’s the significance of the gun Lowe led Dolores to? And doesn’t poor Teddy look like he’s getting real fuckin’ tired of getting shot to death?